
Ojos de par en par brings together poems by more than thirty women from Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean islands, South America, and Spain, each with her own particular form of expression, which translates into great poetic diversity. Luz Mary Giraldo and Martha Canfield: Ojos de par en par: Antología de poetas hispánicas Informed both by classical literature and contemporary Venezuelan politics, by twentieth-century history and high school biology class, by Twitter and the Old Testament, by the cynicism of bureaucracy and the wonder of parenthood, these poems register loss, condemn subjugation, and marvel at the music humans can make when we try to speak of it all.

Others explore the body (living, dead, and in transit): where it goes, the borders it traverses, what it’s forced to leave behind. Some address historical figures or speak in their voices. Each poem in Adalber Salas Hernández’s collection speaks to a different kind of farewell: death, estrangement, illness, dispossession, decomposition, banishment, stories forgetfully or oppressively re-written over time, the painful discrepancy between language and experience.

The Science of Departures is a book of goodbyes. Adalber Salas Hernández: The Science of Departures, translated by Robin Myers
